


Family Affairs

by demiquaver



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuban Lance, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Happy Birthday Lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-08 03:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11637924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demiquaver/pseuds/demiquaver
Summary: Character study of Lance's family members and how he interacts with them. Each chapter will focus on one family member, but they will move forward in chronological order as Lance grows up. Just a lot of Lance-centric fluff.





	1. Marisa

**Author's Note:**

> First and foremost, this fic was a character study for myself. I wanted to figure how I wanted to write Lance and his family members and how they interact before I write them into my other fics. I just wanted to get to know the characters, and kill writer's block in the process. 
> 
> (Also, I know that there was stuff going around about him being the youngest sibling, but being an uncle to younger kids, but let's just ignore that. I had most of this written/planned before that came out and it was too late to change it.)

Marisa Espinosa sat in her bed, her hair a sweaty mess falling out of the low ponytail that it was in. Most of the sheets were either kicked to the foot of the bed or hanging off the edge, but the young woman in the bed was grinning ear to ear as she looked at the small bundle wrapped up in her arms. Another woman, Sofia Espinosa, sat in a small chair on the right side of the bed, supporting the sleeping 6-year-old child in her lap and looking onto the scene with a look of complete and utter adoration and love.

Marisa looks up at her wife as she cradles the newborn baby. “He’s beautiful,” she whispers in reverence and caution against waking the sleeping children.

“He’s gets it from you,” Sophia whispers back, chuckling beneath her breath and smirking. A bright blush makes it’s appearance high on Marisa’s cheeks but she doesn’t stop smiling. The two women sit there for a moment longer, comfortable in the silence between them.

“It’s getting late,” Sophia finally breaks the silence. She stands up slowly, carefully shifting the sleeping child from her lap into her arms. “We’ll introduce him to Catalina in the morning.” Turning back in the doorway, she quickly adds, “After I put Lina to bed, I’ll be right back. I can take him for bit- you need some rest.”

A soft _Thank you_ is whispered just as the door is closing behind Sophia. At the sound of the door clicking closed, the baby begins babbling, but his eyes do not open. Marisa immediately begins rocking the baby, trying to get him to fall back asleep before he fully wakes. “Shhh, Leandro,” she coos at him, “Mami’s got you, everything is okay.” He mumbles just a bit more babbling nonsense before settling into his mother’s arms.

In their solitude, Marisa settles back into reverently praising the child, “Leandro. Leo, my beautiful little lion, I love you more than you will ever know... Leandro Alejandro Núñez Cuesta Espinosa, I know one day you’ll do more than anyone could ever imagine, you’re going to be great.” As she spoke to her child, she pet at his soft and chubby little cheeks with her thumb, doing her best to ease him as he slept. Not but a few moments passed before the slumbering Leandro reached out to the hand on his head and clung tightly to his mother’s thumb. “I can only hope that I’ll be there to see you through it.”

 

About a year had passed since that day. Sophia had returned to her position as a waitress at the upscale restaurant down the street and Marisa began sewing again, selling the nice button-downs out of her house. Catalina started and finished her first year of school where she stood out as bright and studious to both her teacher and classmates. 

Leandro on the other hand (Leo or Lance to those close to him) spent many of his days with his mother Marisa as she worked. More often than not, he found himself covered in bits of fabric scraps that he could mess with. He loved balling them up and throwing them and balling them back up again. Sometimes he would lay them out and piece them together as a puzzle only he knew the picture to, though that usually didn’t last very long. Towards the end of March, Lance began crawling himself towards new and more exciting things- the stray cats just outside the front door, for example.

Even without bribing them with food, the cats of the neighborhood always seemed to flock to Lance just for his gentle and excited petting. Fortunately for the strays, Mami Marisa was able to work with the front doorstep in her sight and keep an eye on her son at the same, allowing him to stay out with them much longer than he would otherwise be allowed.

A couple months later, the boy and the cats had seemed to establish their own form of a barter system. The cats would bring Lance bugs and mice that they had hunted down as gifts and, in return, Lance would shower them in pets and affection and occasionally even give them scraps of fabric that he had managed to sneak away from his mother. They treasured these fabric gifts and would carry them away in their mouths, as gently as if it were their own kitten.

Catalina would come home from school towards the end of the day, and Mami Sophia would come home from work shortly after. Once everyone was home, making dinner was always a family affair. The two women would take turns mixing and stirring and watching Lance. Catalina was always eager to help in whatever way she could; usually this meant bringing dishes and ingredients and setting the table once the food was ready.

After a long day with his sister and his moms, Lance’s favorite part of the day was always bath time right before bed. Mami Marisa usually took care of Lance’s bath while Mami Sophia put Catalina to put and told her a bedtime story. (Sophia was always the better story-teller between the two of them.)

From the moment Lance is placed in the water, he immediately begins slapping the surface and splashing in it. Tiny droplets landed all over the counter surrounding the sink Lance was sitting in and onto the floor. Though Lance wasn’t aiming to splash his mom, she definitely wasn’t spared from the aquatic assault.

Tiring himself out after a few minutes, Lance’s splashes became farther and farther apart. Seizing the opportunity, Marisa began washing him, as was the original intention.

Even before he was fully washed, Lance’s eyes were drooping closed, relaxing into the water and into his mother’s touch. By the time she was finished washing him, Lance was practically already asleep. She wrapped him in a clean towel that had been sitting on the counter and carried him back into their shared room where she put him into a fresh set of sleep clothes. As she laid her baby into the cot next to her bed, she should have realized that the past 24 hours had been too good to last. As soon as she was turning away from the cot to head towards her own bed, Lance began crying out, sounding nearly in sobs before he was even fully awake.

“Leo, Leo, shhh,” she called, quickly making her way to his bedside. “I’m right here, what’s wrong?” She reached out her hand to caress the back of his head but was interrupted by Lance reaching out and grabbing her fingers into the palm of his little hand. 

When he blinked open his eyes, Lance seemed to be confused himself as to why he was grasping onto someone’s hand. His eyes quickly followed the arm up to see his mom and Lance lit up with recognition and joy at having his mom right there with him. “Ma-” Marisa’s eyes widened at the first stuttered syllable. “Mami!”

The bedroom door opened slowly behind them and Sophia called out into the dimmed room, “Risa, honey, why are you still up?” Rather than give an answer, Marisa simply waved over to wife with her one free hand to come stand by the cot with her. Her voice and appearance by the cot drew Lance’s attention to the newcomer, but he still held on tight to his mother’s fingers.

“What is it, Marisa?”

“Leo, he-” she began to explain, before being interrupted by Lance reaching out to Sophia with both hands and grinning just as brightly as before. “Mami! Mami!”

“He said his first word.”


	2. Sophia

About eight years had passed since Lance said “Mami” as his first word instead of sleeping, but he was still just as hopelessly attached to his mothers as ever. Summer break was coming upon its last day before the kids headed back to school- Lance for the third time and Catalina for her last year of primary school. At the moment, both kids were lounging in a small cuddle pile with Mami Sophia on her day off, while Mami Marisa was working in the other room. 

“Mami…” Lance groaned, squirming against her side, “Do I have to go to school tomorrow?” Sophia looked down at her son and met his hopeful gaze. “I could stay here with you for another day!”

Sophia chuckled when he finished speaking, not at all surprised that he would rather stay home than be off somewhere else. “I’m sorry, mijo, but I have to go back to work tomorrow.” She traced the back of her hand over his cheek and to the back of his head as she spoke, Lance leaning his head into her hand as she does so. “Besides,” she continues, “I thought you liked school anyways? Why do you not want to go?”

“He’s just a big mama’s boy,” Catalina teased, not unkindly, smirking as she does so. Lance doesn’t even argue this fact though, but rather just sticks his tongue out at her across their Sophia and mutters a quick “Shut up, Lina.”

“Hey now, play nice,” Sophia interjected. She placed one hand on each of their heads, drawing them away from their resulting glaring contest. “You’re both going to go to school tomorrow, and you’ll both be fine. I’m positive that once you’re there, you’ll be glad you went.”

Lance continued to pout for just a bit, but was already snuggling up closer to his mami, quickly tucking his shoulders under her arm. “Fine,” he mutters, slowly uncrossing his arms and settling against his mother’s side, “but only if we can do something fun today.” It comes out as a timid demand from the nine-year-old; he glances at hi sister before they tag team sweet and innocent puppy dog eyes to win over Sophia.

She sits between them holding back a smile for as long as she can before finally relenting. She chuckles as she stands and takes a hand from each of her children, gently pulling them towards the other room, “I have an idea.” Catalina and Lance both follow confused but hopeful. “You guys go get changed and we’ll head down to the beach for a while.”

The kids looked at each other wide-eyed and high-fived before hurriedly heading off to get changed into swim clothes. Sophia collected together a bag with towels and snacks and grabbed a small sun umbrella as she waited for them to finish changing. The three of them were out of there in less than 10 minutes.

That night comes and goes like any other, with a slightly chaotic meal preparation but a much calmer meal as the family sat around their table talking about their day. At one point, Lance goes on about a family of crabs he found down at the beach for about twenty minutes. Him and Catalina tell their moms about how they built the city of sandcastles for the crabs and how they even put a moat around it for them. It had water in it and everything. They talked about the man they saw surfing and how elegant he looked out on the water. They talked about the boardwalk and the nice man at the ice cream stand who gave them a free ice cream to share and the lady with the hat bigger than they were.

After a long time, they finally ran out of stories to tell and were quickly ushered off to get ready for bed. “But mooooooommm…..” Catalina whined out. Lance added on a quick, “It’s not even that late!” to back her up.

“It’s late enough,” Sophia chuckles out, “plus, don’t you two want to have plenty of beauty sleep for your first day back at school tomorrow?” 

They each grumble out a resigned “Fine, I guess,” as they climb under the covers of their respective beds.

“Goodnight!” Sophia calls out, extra cheerfully just to mess with the grumpy children, moving to leave the bedroom.

“Goodnight, mami.”

“Night, mami!”

 

The next morning goes as smoothly as most first days of school do, meaning it was nearly a disaster. Everyone woke up late meaning they were behind schedule from the very beginning. They were all rushed to get dressed and ready, Lance and Catalina doing their best to get into their uniforms as quickly as possible while Sophia brushes Lance’s hair and Catalina pulls hers back into a low ponytail. Marisa rushes around in the other room to make sure their bags are fully packed and ready to go when Sophia ushers them out the front door.

Sophia walks them by the school on a short detour to get to work, kissing them each on the top of the head once before waving a quick ‘goodbye’ to them before they have to walk in opposite directions. “Tell me all about it when you get home, okay?”

“Yes mami!”

“Sure thing.”

Lance is the first to get home seeing as he ran the entire way, but his sister wasn’t far behind. “Come on Lina!” Lance came practically sprinting around the corner and through his front door, tackling Sophia in a hug as soon as he saw her. “Hey mami.”

“Hey mijo, how was your first day?” As soon as the question was asked, Lance brightened and he took a deep breath, preparing to dive right into a full, in-depth retelling. He started by talking about his teacher, a tall, thin old man with hair only along the back and sides of his head. He liked to tell a lot of stories for the first day, and he told the students all about his wife and daughter.

Sometime during his speech, Sophia had managed to wrangle both Lance and Catalina to sit on the couch with her, much like how they had been the morning before. Marisa had also come to join them about halfway through Lance’s story, having finished cleaning up her work space. She stood leaned up against the doorway watching the scene before her with loving eyes and a soft smile.

After Lance seemed to be done talking about his teacher, Catalina leaned across their mother and asked, “So did you actually learn anything, or did the teacher spend _all day_ talking about himself?”

“Of course we learned stuff,” Lance answered, “duh.” Lanced turned in his seat on the couch so he could face his mom and sister to tell the next part. “We learned all _kinds_ of cool things about space today. Did you know that all of the really far planets don’t even have a ground? Like, if you tried to walk on them, you would just fall through it?!?” Lance looks over with wide eyes to his mother standing in the doorway. “The ground,” he emphasized, “it’s just not there.”

Marisa and Sophia chuckle at their excited child, Sophia reaching out to ruffle his hair playfully. “I guess you’ll have to keep that in mind when you end up visiting one of them.” Lance’s confident smile shone through as he settled back against his mother’s side.

“Hey Leo,” Catalina called, poking him in the side with her foot, “Tell them about that thing you were telling me about after class today.” He looked over at her,confused, trying to remember exactly what it was that he had talked about. “You know,” she looked over at Lance to see if he remembered what she was talking about, “The thing with the moon and the-”

“Oh! Oh, yeah yeah yeah, that thing,” he interrupted, “Did you know that the moon basically controls the ocean?”

“Does it now?” Marisa asked, trying to see exactly where Lance was going with this.

“Weeeelllll, it’s more just the tides that it changes with, like, reverse gravity… stuff, but still! The moon controls the ocean; how awesome is that? Space and Earth working together in the oceans. It’s just. So. Cool.” He flung his arms about him as he talked, as if he just couldn’t contain himself while talking to the three people he loved most.


	3. Catalina

A few weeks into that same school year, Lance and Catalina decide that it’s time for them to take a little bit of a break, just the two of them. One weekend near the end of October, they head out to spend the day at the beach, excited for a nice relaxing day in the sun. 

As soon as their feet hit the sand, the two kids are darting out towards the water, dumping their shoes and towels in the sand and running side by side. Lance makes it to the edge of the shore just moments before Catalina, and yet he still manages to be fully submerged when she catches up.

“Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I would swear that you’re a mermaid,” Catalina teased. “I’ve never seen someone as desperate to be in the water as you are.”

“Yeah, well” Lance’s nine-year-old brain tried it’s best to come up with an intelligent and put together response. “Well, the ocean is cool, so obviously, umm… Obviously, you need to meet better people,” came out instead.

Catalina just chuckled as she walked out into the water, splashing Lance as she passed by him. He stuck his tongue out at her and crossed his arms over his chest, defiantly. If only his sister had noticed instead of diving off into the water in the opposite direction. Lance quickly followed after her, grasping at her ankles to catch her and so he could try to pull her under the water. Eventually, she got away by swimming towards a group of people and weaving in between their legs until she lost Lance. Lance was about to start calling out her name, on the verge of true worry. She had been under the water for a long time, and now he had no idea where she was.

It was just a matter of second before he felt a light pressure across his chest and on his shoulders. Before he could process what was really happening, Catalina had hoisted herself out of the water, using Lance as leverage so that he would fall beneath the low waves in her place. Lance spluttered as he come up for air, finally getting vengeance for the earlier splashing. Catalina, however, was distracted once again, this time by laughter. Lance kept throwing water her way but she didn't even seem to notice through her laughter, practically doubled over in the water.

Shortly after, Lance grew bored with their petty splash fights and instead suggested a more more dignified challenge. “Race me to the pier? I mean, I know I’ll win, but race me anyways?”

“Okay, first,” Catalina said, capturing Lance’s full attention with the seriousness in her voice, “We both know I’m the faster swimmer out of the two of us, don’t even try to deny it.” Lance chuckled as he rolled his eyes, waiting for Catalina to go on with her offensively _wrong_ claims. “And second, what does winner get?”

“Hmmm…” Lance contemplates, glaring at her above the water, his head mostly submerged beneath the waves. He was hiding a smirk but refused to let Catalina know that he was amused. When he finally reaches a conclusion, he stands back up in the water and takes a step towards where Catalina is bobbing in the waves. It was meant to be intimidating, or at least as intimidating as a lanky nine-year-old can be, but his slow, groggy movements through the high water end up more closely resembling a penguin waddle.

“How about this,” he starts, diplomatic for now, “How about I go easy on you so you at least have a chance at beating me. I mean, there is no way that you actually think you’re faster than I am. And two, loser carries winner piggy-back on the way home?”

Lance takes another penguin waddle forward and Catalina does the same, meeting him in the middle. She sticks out her hand forcefully, as if she was actually daring Lance to take the challenge. “You’re gonna regret this little man.”

“The only thing I’m gonna regret,” Lance countered, “is not going even easier on you. Sometimes, you just gotta give the win away to the underdog, you know?”

They shake on it.

Catalina wins.

They both pop up out of the water beneath the pier breathless and full of adrenaline. Catalina takes the time to do a small happy dance in the water and Lance can’t even be all that grumpy about it. After all their smack talk, it was a fair fight, at least for the most part. If a few ankles and wrists and legs and arms got grabbed during the race, who was to say that it wasn’t a complete accident, just a liability that came with the flinging of arms through the air and water to swim as fast as possible?

Lance is the first to head back towards their towels and shoes, Catalina following behind and teasing him even further with her own little victory song. Walking up back to the pier, they spot a small ice cream stand just up the shore. With just a quick glance at one another, they agree that a small ice cream would be a well deserved treat as an after race celebration. They go to walk into the parlor, already debating which flavors of ice cream are the best, but they make their selections quickly, heading back out to sit on the edge of the pier and enjoy their ice cream together.

A few minutes pass in comfortable silence, before Catalina sets down her empty cup on the wooden pier beside her and turns to face her little brother. “Leo, can I tell you something?”

Lance cocked his head in confusion, but turned to face her anyways, giving his sister his full attention. “Of course, Lina. What is it?”

“I want to study marine biology in a couple years.” She spoke quietly, but without hesitation. She was confident in her decision, just not her decision to share it.

Lance on the other hand, immediately perked up at this idea. “That’s so cool! So you’re gonna get to learn about everything in the ocean?” He seemed to consider this for a moment before quietly muttering once again, “That’s so _cool!_ ”

Catalina’s eye widened at Lance’s reaction, surprised it had gone this well, until she had realized that she forgot to mention one very important detail. “Leo, wait wait wait, there’s one more thing.” She reached out her hands towards him as if she could physically contain his growing excitement if she just tried hard enough. “I want to go to Florida.” Lance immediately sobered at the announcement. Catalina turned away to look at the open ocean by her side, focusing on that long gone point where the sea met the sky. “There’s a school there that supposedly has an incredibly good marine biology program. And they have so many resources for both research and for students, it would be an incredible opportunity.”

“So you would have to leave me? And leave mom? You would leave…”

“It’s not ideal, I know,” Catalina conceded, “but I feel like I have to at least try to get in. It just feels right. I need to do this.”

They sat together in silence once again, this one much more tense. “Well,” Lance seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion, “I guess, I’ll just have to convince mami to take all of us to Florida.” He paused once again, but his mouth kept moving, unsure how to most sincerely word the next part. “I don’t know what I would do without you Lina.”

“I know, you’d be hopeless without me,” Catalina joked, slinging an arm over Lance’s shoulders, “but that would be such a big move, I just don’t know that it would be possible. And even if it was, I could never force mami to do something like that, just for me. We have a life here, I can’t expect her to drop all of that just to move out to Florida, so I can stay close to her.”

Three years came and went, Catalina applied to the marine biology program at the University of Tampa secretly, but was unable to keep the secret once her acceptance letter came. Marisa and Sophia knew about Catalina’s plan by the end of the day, both unconditionally supporting their daughter.

At the end of those three years, Lance was still determined to convince his moms to move them all out to Florida, near his sister’s university. Lance knew his pouty, puppy-dog eyes could still get him almost anything that he wanted, but he knew this request in particular would be pushing it. He wasn’t entirely sure that he could really pull it off.

They ended up moving just a few months later.


	4. Intermission

The next few years bring about a whirlwind of change for the Espinosa family. Sophia moved out first with Catalina, to get her settled into her new dorms as well as to secure a new job and a small apartment. She ended up with a new waitressing position in a restaurant similar to the one she was familiar with. Luckily for both of them, the restaurant and apartment that Sophia found were both just a couple miles out from the University of Tampa.

Once those two were settled, Marisa came out with Lance to meet them not long afterwards. The new apartment was covered in boxes with their arrival, slowly being opened and organized as they were needed. Marisa continued selling her handmade shirts, and when those proved to be a hit, she soon added an even wider selection to the clothes she was making, pants and skirts and even a couple dresses when they were requested.

It was the end of her first semester at the university when Catalina first got a chance to visit the new apartment and see her whole family. She was home for a couple weeks over the winter holidays when Sophia make a decision that would change all of their lives even more.

“Mari, sweetie, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and with Catalina going off to college and moving on in her life… I’ve been thinking I wanna have another baby… I know it’s a lot to ask but I know that we can make this work. Plus,” she added on quickly, “One of the younger girls who works my shift with me just found out she was pregnant and was already planning on putting her baby up for adoption, so we would really e helping her out too.” She seemed so genuinely passionate about this that Marisa couldn’t help but give into her wife’s plea, complete with adorable puppy-dog eyes and all. 

“That definitely sounds like a very ‘Sophia’ plan of yours, but I can’t truthfully say that I would be against having another face around the house.”

It took a couple weeks of discussions and meetings with Sophia’s co-worker to get all the papers set up before a very important fact was brought to light. The baby being carried by Sophia’s co-worker actually turned out to be two babies. She was having twins. Now, where most people might be at least slightly concerned with this turn of events, Sophia and Marisa weren’t deterred. And they definitely weren't going to split up the babies, so they instead drew up a new contract with the mother to reflect this change and moved forward.

That next June saw the three women in the local hospital’s maternity ward welcoming the new babies into the world. Twin baby girls with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, one sleeping quietly with their mother in the hospital bed and one wide awake, tossing and turning in Marisa’s arms.

“Estefania,” Marisa whispered, “Shh, shh, it’s okay, you’re safe here.”

Sophia’s co-worker looked up and chuckled. “So I take it, Estefania’s her name then?”

Marisa blushed when she realized she had said the name aloud before they had a chance to discuss names together, all three of them.

Sophia stepped forward when her wife didn’t answer, “Yeah that’s the name we had decided on, but we wanted you to name the other for us.” Sophia wrapped her arm around Marisa’s shoulder and wrapped her hand around Estefania’s tiny fingers. “So what do you say?” she asked looking back up at the other woman.

It was her turn to blush as she looked down at the newborn in her arms. “Bianca, she’s definitely a Bianca.”

Marisa and Sophia both watched on at the woman cradling the sleeping child. “It’s beautiful, thank you.”

Bianca yawned and blinked open her eyes, smiling up at her mother holding her. “She is, isn’t she?”


	5. Estefania

The twins’ first summer brought with it the crazy thunderstorms of Florida’s monsoons. Bianca dealt with them fairly well aside from the light sleeping. As long as she was wrapped up tight in her favorite red blanket, and she knew someone was in the room with her, she wouldn’t cry. Occasionally she even slept through parts of the storms.

Estefania on the other hand, she hated thunderstorms. After the first couple storms, they got a pair of infant-sized, soundproof earmuffs to protect her from the loud noises so she could sleep. While this did help quite a bit, there were still nights where the thunder was close enough and loud enough that it seemed she could still feel the vibrations.

It was a night such as this, that Sophia had taken an extra evening shift, leaving the rest of the family home alone with the twins.

Catalina was slowly rocking Bianca in her arms to get her to stay calm and Marisa was attempting to do the same with Estefania. “Leo, can you take Este for a little bit, please?” She handed over the swaddled child, before heading off to the kitchen. “I promise it’ll be just a few minutes. I just need to make their bottles. Hopefully, that’ll distract them from the storm for at least a short while.”

Lance held his baby sister close, immediately tucking her head onto the crook of his elbow. Once she was situated, he began to slowly bounce and rock back and forth, imitating what he saw his mom doing earlier. When that didn’t work, he looked up around the room, trying to find another way to calm her down. He saw his jacket on the back of the sofa a short ways away and he knew exactly what he had to do.

He rushed over to the sofa as quickly as he could without disturbing Estefania and settled against the armrest, sinking into the back cushion. He switched all of the infant’s weight onto one arm and, with his free hand, grabbed the jacket hanging off the back of the couch. He carefully wrapped his jacket around the blanket Estefania was already swaddled in. It wrapped around her little body a couple times and Lance even went as far as to pull the hood up around the back of her head, providing just a little extra protection from the threat of the loud thunder.

Once this seemed to calm her just a little bit, Lance then began scratching beneath her chin and under her ears, where he knew she was extra ticklish. These small, soft movements began to wear away at her frown. As the minutes passed, Lance was finally able to pull a small smile out of her.

Satisfied with having at least making her smile, Lance decided to give her a break from the constant tickles, but Estefania just wouldn’t have it. As soon as he pulled his fingers away, she began gurgling angry noises up at him and went right back to frowning. Experimentally, Lance began running his fingers down her cheeks and under her chin once again. Immediately, her frown was replaced with a content smile.

Lance was just resigning himself to the position of thunderstorm distraction for the night when Marisa came back in from the kitchen, drawing everyone’s attention. She handed out the two bottles as she crossed the room towards the sofa. Just seconds later, Estefania let out a loud, bright laugh, shocking everyone in the room aside from the nearly asleep Bianca. She even seemed to startle herself just a little bit. That didn’t stop her, however, from going right back to chuckling under Lance’s continued attention.

Lance scanned the room, trying to portray his disbelief and amusement to the others solely through eye contact. As he did so, he also grabbed the bottle from Marisa. Before Estefania had the chance to go back to being grumpy, he replaced his tickling distraction with the bottle, hoping that it just might be enough to keep her in a good mood.

Estefania seemed surprised by suddenly having milk, but she quickly adjusted, closing her eyes and sucking on the bottle. Catalina and Lance continued feeding the twins so Marisa could return to the kitchen and begin making dinner for the rest of the family. Bianca only made it through about half of her bottle before falling asleep. Estefania only had about a quarter of hers left.  
Catalina and Lance put the twins to bed in the cots that had been moved out into the living room to keep nearby during the storm. Lance removed his jacket from around his baby sister, but kept it near her by instead bundling it up into a pillow to keep underneath her back so she would stay propped up in her sleep.

 

The next morning the loud, boisterous thunderstorms were replaced with a gentle, drizzling rain. Lance was one of the first ones to wake, awoken by Estefania’s morning cries. He immediately went across the apartment to grab her from Mami’s room. Mami Sophia had a really late night last night, coming home just as Lance and Catalina were heading off to bed, it would be a shame if she was woken early after a night like that.

Lance changed her diaper from the night before and fed her her morning meal before sitting with her in the large windowsill of the largest window in their apartment. The rain continued to fall gently against the window panes as she babbled senselessly, Lance carrying on as if he understood every word she was saying.

“I love the rain, you know that, Este?”

“Blehp.”

“Yes, I know it can be scary sometimes, like last night, but when it’s all calm like this, it’s just so pretty.”

“Gih.”  
“You see those pretty flowers in the garden down there?” Lance pointed out the window at the red and orange and yellow flowers in the garden just outside their window. Estefania follows his hand with her eyes, but she seems too focused on his pointing finger to even notice the bright flowers outside.

“Hem.” Lance takes this as confirmation, even as she makes tiny little grabby hands at Lance’s finger.

“Yeah, those wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for the rain. They only bloom at the end of summer because that’s the only time they get rain.” Lance stares out and watches the rain for a while longer, until the rest of the household wakes up, Estefania playing with his fingers and hand idly the whole time.


	6. Bianca

“Mami!” Catalina called, poking her head around into one of the smaller rooms of their apartment where Marisa was sitting at her work desk. “Este said she wanted to go swimming. Is it alright if I take her to the beach?”

Marisa paused a moment in answering, finishing the task she had at hand, before turning around to face her daughter. “That sounds fine to me, as long as you’re home before dark. And don’t forget extra towels and sunblock!” Catalina was already making her way down the hallway as Marisa finished calling out her conditions for the two girls to leave.

“Of course, Mami!” Catalina called, packing towels and sunblock and snacks into a large tote bag. As she walked around the apartment collecting her things, Estefania came walking up behind her older sister.

“Did Mami say yes?” She asked, trying to whisper, though she wasn’t very good at it. Lance answered when Catalina was too distracted to; she seemed preoccupied running through her mental checklist of beach supplies.

“Yup, Lina’s just packing up all the stuff you guys are gonna take to the beach, okay Este?” Lance ruffled her hair as he walked up to her.

“Leo… you’re not going?” She seemed confused. She had assumed all three of her siblings would be going with her. Why would Lance stay here by himself?

Lance crouched down in front of her to be closer to her eye level as he answered. “There’s going to be a lot of people at the beach today, Este, and Bianca isn’t feeling quite up to that today, so she asked me to stay home with her so she wasn’t alone.”

“Oh, okay.” She nodded her head as she turned to walk towards Catalina. Their older sister already had the freshly packed bag slung over her shoulder and she was standing by the front door, ready to go.

“Have fun at the beach for me, girls.” Lance waved them out the door but before he could close it up behind them Estefania turned around and hugged his leg for just a short second.

“You’ll have fun today too,” She said, turning and walking down the hallway, “I promise!” He chuckled as she disappeared around a corner, locking up the front door. Once they were gone Lance headed back to Marisa’s work room, popping his head around the doorframe in nearly the same way the Catalina had done.

“You need anything, Mami?”

She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled, her hands freezing in front of her so as to not lose her place in her work. “A glass of water would be amazing.”  
“Coming right up!” Lance headed into the kitchen where he met up with a sleepy Bianca eating a bowl of sugary cereal. Lance reached into the cupboard to grab a tall plastic cup and into the freezer to grab their ice tray. He quickly plopped a few pieces into the cup before returning the tray and filling the cup. As he poured, he glanced a few times between his little sister and the time above the oven.

She seemed to notice his confusion when she glanced up, muttering out a quick, “What?”

He glanced once more at the clock before answering. “It’s 11:52, why are you eating cereal?” His small smirk as he asked, however, gave away the fact that he already knew the answer to his question.

“Lina poured it for me.” 

Lance gave a fake, exaggerated groan as he walked out of the kitchen to deliver the glass of water. When he returned to the kitchen, he took a seat next to Bianca and groaned again. “She’s such a cereal enabler, why do you let her do this?”

Bianca chuckled at Lance’s dramatics before leaning forward, entirely confident. “Cereal is good for any meal, any time of day, and you just can’t admit it.”

“So you’ve become one of _them_ ,” glaring back at her. “One of the heathens who doesn’t believe in the sanctity that is breakfast cereal.” He leaned back in his chair, one hand covering his heart. “How do you live with yourself?”

She just laughed once more and returned to eating her lunch cereal. They sat in the kitchen in a comfortable silence for a few moments, Lance getting up to get them both a glass of water as well. “So what do you want to do today?” he asked, sliding her glass in front of her.

She shrugged while finishing her last bite of the cereal. “I kinda wanted to draw for a little bit today.”

“Coloring it is!” Lance announced. “You take care of your bowl and I’ll grab the drawing supplies, deal?”

“Deal.”

 

They spent the next couple hours coloring together, making occasional small talk about their pictures, but otherwise concentrating on their drawings. A small radio played pop music in the background and every once in a while one or the other would ask for a certain color pencil or crayon to be passed; the day went by quickly. Lance was drawing an underwater scene featuring a mermaid and what seemed to be a purple shark while Bianca drew a crazy sci-fi fight scene pitting a giant, robot penguin against a team of elite wizards.

“Leo,” she spoke up, “Do you-” she seemed to cut herself off, shaking her head as she dove back into her picture, putting on some finishing touches.

“Hmm? Do I what?” Lance asked, putting down his colored pencils altogether.

“Nothing,” Bianca put down her pencils too, and her hands in her lap. “It’s dumb.”

“Whatever it is, I can promise you right now that it’s not dumb.” Lance moved his chair ever so slightly closer to his sister and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “So what’s eatin’ at you, bug?”

She chuckled a bit at the old nickname before taking a deep breath and admitting her question. “Do you think it’s dumb for me to want to be an artist when I grow up?” Lance’s eyes widened in shock but she avoided his gaze entirely.

“Of _course_ not,” Lance answered, “What would make you think that wanting to be an artist is dumb?”

“Last week I told my teacher I want to be an artist and she said it’s not possible. That if I even try, I’m just throwing my future away.”

“Oh honey-bug, we _both_ know your teacher’s just a grumpy old lady,” Lance replied, wrapping his little sister up in his arms and pulling her onto his lap. “Don’t even listen to a word of that nonsense; you can be whatever you want to be.”

“Really?” she asked, finally looking up at her older brother.

“Of course!” Lance seemed to ponder deep in thought, looking off into the distance, “Unless you’re like me at your age. All I wanted to be was a mermaid prince…That didn’t quite work out though…” Bianca laughed at Lance’s story. He always knew how to cheer her up. “But if you do want to become an artist,” Lance added, “You’re gonna have to work really, really hard. You know that right?”

Bianca nodded vigorously. “I’ll have to draw _all the time_ , right?”

“Yup! But you already do that don’t you?” Lance chuckled. Bianca nodded again as Lance leaned over to where Bianca had been sitting and grabbed her finished drawing. “Now why don’t you tell me the story behind this picture here?”

Bianca sat up straighter and her eyes widened as she began her story. “Okay, so it all began when the scientists were trying to create a serum to make the penguins immortal…”


	7. Santiago

Just because there wasn’t any snow, doesn’t mean winter wasn’t in full swing in Tampa, Florida. Plus, having Lance back home for the first time all semester was pretty great, too. Lance had just started his first year at the Galaxy Garrison, Catalina was just starting to establish herself in the field of Marine Biology, and the twins loved their new second grade teachers. Bianca was improving with her art every week and Estefania was outstanding in her math classes.

But this winter was the first time in a long while that the entire family would be home, all of them together again. Lance had just narrowly avoided crying when he saw his Mami waiting for him at the airport. Seeing the rest of the family was nearly overwhelming. The immediate relief of walking into home entirely his, coupled with all the smiling faces looking back at him actually did send him into tears.

His vision was so blurred that he almost didn’t even realize that there was an extra person. He made his way down the line of his family members, greeting each one with a hug and a whispered “I missed you so much.” When he reached what should have been the end of the line, there was a man by Catalina’s side that Lance didn’t recognize.

He stepped back as he rubbed his eyes clear and squinted at the unknown man. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” Both the strange man and Catalina chuckled at Lance’s reaction.

The man stuck his hand out towards Lance and introduced himself, “I’m Santiago, I work with your sister at the marine life animal sanctuary.”

Lance shook the man’s hand cautiously, “I’m Lance.” An awkward silence followed as Lance stood there, appraising the man by Catalina’s side. Once Lance seemed satisfied he shut the door behind him, coughing into the silence eating at the room. “Soooo….” he started, bringing his small thing of luggage around in front of him, “How long have you guys known each other?”

Before either of them could begin talking, Sophia shepherds the twins out into the living room, “Why don’t you take those kids in the kitchen so you guys can all catch up?” she suggested. “The twins and I have already heard the story, so just call us when you’re ready to start dinner, okay?” She kissed Marisa’s cheek on her way out, following the twins towards the sofa.

The remaining four make their way towards the kitchen, Lance stashing his luggage into his room on the way there. By the time Lance catches up, Catalina had already poured three glasses of wine and a fourth glass of apple juice, just for Lance. He glares at his sister playfully when he realizes what she’s done and tries to stealthily grab her wine glass instead of the juice glass, but after living with Lance for nearly 19 years, she was prepared. Lance snatched at open air twice before resigning himself to the apple juice presented to him.

“So, how long _have_ you guys known each other?” Marisa asked, bringing up Lance’s earlier question. 

Catalina downed a sip of wine before answering, “About two years now. Santiago here, he’d been working at the sanctuary for only about 6 months when they first hired me. He’s actually the one who showed me the ropes around there. All the unofficial ‘rules’, you know?”

Catalina pauses here in the story, looking over at Santiago, obviously waiting for him to continue the story from there. “Well,” he says, looking over at Marisa, “It started out like that, yeah, but your daughter is just so enthusiastic and passionate about every animal that comes into our sanctuary, that I just couldn’t help but look up to her. She’s always so positive and the animals just seem to absolutely adore her, so I figured I just had to get to know her.”

Blushing and hiding her face in her glass, Catalina spoke back up. “First off, I’m pretty sure you’re exaggerating at least a little bit, Santi. Sure, I got along with most of the animals fairly well, but you wanna know adoration? You should have seen Lance with the cats back home in Cuba.”

“Right?!” Marisa agreed, “I wasn’t sure they were going to let him leave when we decided to move.” A loud laugh erupted from the kitchen at that, loud enough to grab the attention of Sophia and the twins in the living room.

“How long is that new guy going to be here?” Bianca asked, turning towards her mother.

“I think he’s just staying for dinner tonight,” she answered. “Lina said he wanted to meet the whole family, so that’s why they waited until today for Lance to come back.”

“Is he in love with Lina?” The question came from Estefania as she looked thoughtfully at the kitchen. “He looks at Lina the same way you and Mami look at each other.”

Sophia seemed to contemplate it for a while, “I think he might. They seem good for each other. Catalina’s always very happy when she’s with him.”

“Are they going to get married?” Este continued, her eyes widening in excitement.

Sophia chuckled at her daughter’s growing enthusiasm, Bianca even perking up behind her. “Mija, that I don’t know. Lina and Santiago have to make that decision themselves.”

Little did any of them know that decision would come just a bit sooner than expected. Catalina and Santiago had been dating for just over a year and a half, and they had discussed the idea of marriage in passing before, but they never came to any solid conclusion. Or so it seemed. Santiago wanted the whole family at this dinner for a greater reason than just to meet all of them. Granted, he wanted that too, but it was more of just a bonus at this point.

That night, as dinner rolled around, Sophia and Marisa were finishing cooking and Lance was setting the table with Catalina and Santiago. Once the food was brought out and everyone was sat around the table, conversation flowed endlessly. In fact, most of the time there were at least two conversations going on at once. The twins had the attention of Marisa and Catalina, retelling the most recent episode of their favorite cartoon and Santiago was telling Lance and Sophia stories from the sanctuary. Lance was just glad he was choosing to focus on the tales with happy endings.

The food was long gone and the twins were practically nodding off Santiago got to the end of what was turning out to be his last story of the night- the rescue and rehabilitation of a dolphin missing most of his left fin. “We ended up commissioning a prosthetic for him, but when he came in, it took all of his effort not to constantly swim in circles, and even then, he was usually at least turning.”

“Everyone ended up calling him Nemo. He was still so happy all the time, even with the tiny fin. We all loved him,” Catalina added. She smiled wistfully in remembrance of the dolphin they had released, everyone in the room silent for just that moment.

Then, just before Lance started getting up to start taking dishes, the calm, happy atmosphere in the room gave Santiago just the moment he needed to change his life for the better. He motioned for Lance to pull his chair back in, “Wait just a moment, Lance, please.” Santiago made eye contact with Lance as he sat back down, trying his best to convey ‘You know that thing we talked about earlier? Yeah, I’m gonna do that thing’ with just facial expressions. Somehow, he seemed to be successful and Lance sat back down, smirking teasingly at the other man.

Catalina looked over confusedly at her boyfriend as he stood from the table. He turned towards her, reached into his pocket, and knelt to the ground on one knee. Catalina immediately blushed, covering her mouth in happy shock. “My sweet Catalina, the day I met you changed my life forever, and I’m so glad that it did. I have never met anyone nearly as positive and warm and uplifting as you. You make me want to be like that for everyone else around me. You make me want to be a better person. I don’t want to imagine my life without you and now I’m not going to be able to imagine it without this wonderful family of yours. Hopefully, you’ll let me become a part of that family.” He paused, looking up at her to see tears welling in her eyes. “Lina, will you marry me?”

Catalina leapt out of her seat, wrapping her arms around Santiago’s neck and burying her face in his shoulder. She muttered quiet, heartfelt _yes_ ’s over and over, the sound muffled by the fabric of his shirt. Once she was able to calm down, she leaned back away from his shoulder, one arm still around him. They both looked down at the ring he held in between them and Catalina instantly offered her hand. He slipped it on, kissing the knuckle right above it as soon as he was done.

She pulled her hand back towards herself to get a closer look at the ring. It had a small princess cut diamond set in a white gold band, the diamond bookended between a sapphire and an emerald. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

The moment ended abruptly by Lance nearly tackling his sister in order to get closer to them. “Can I see it?!” She chuckled at his enthusiasm before giving over her hand, Lance turning it in every direction to examine the ring. “Nice choice,” he complimented, facing back up at Santiago who blushed self-consciously at the attention.

“I gave her the best that I could, I just wish I could have done more.” At this, Catalina seemed almost offended, drawing the ring closer to her chest protectively.

“No! I love it just the way it is. It’s perfect.” Santiago’s blush traveled to his eyes and down his neck.

Sophia was the first to speak up and save Santiago from any more compliments. “Hey,” she said, “Am I ever going to get a turn to look at the ring?”

Catalina’s eyes grew wide in excitement, “Of course!”

The rest of the night was spent in celebration- Catalina and Santiago sharing stories, the twins taking turns looking at the ring on Catalina’s finger, Lance spilling a couple embarrassing stories from when they were growing up. He claimed it was all ‘just a part of his brotherly duties’. At the end of it all, most of them ended up staying awake and chatting until it was almost the next morning (the twins were off to bed at about midnight). Santiago was more than ecstatic that everything went smoothly and he went to bed happy knowing he would get to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loved.


End file.
